Shope one of few younger lawmakers in aging legislatures
by Brendan Campbell | Cronkite News
Legislators across the country are far older than their constituents, and issues important to young people are taking a backseat at state and national levels as a result, according to a report released Tuesday.
The report by the Center for American Progress said that while one-third of eligible voters nationally are 35 or younger, “only about one in every 16 state legislators is 35 years old or younger.”
The situation was slightly better in Arizona, according to numbers provided by the center, but still skewed sharply older, with 30 percent of the state in the 18-35 age range but only about 11 percent of the Legislature in that group. The center was able to provide ages for only 80 of the state’s 90 legislators.
